Brief Synopsis (Lincoln)

[JannerinCardiff]

Was not aiming at anyone in particular mate - its the general "feel" of this thread that people are piling in on a guy whos played less than 90 minutes.

No worries. I’m certainly not wanting to ‘pile in’ on Critchlow, merely citing him for being at fault for Lincoln’s winner (which he himself has admitted, as has his manager Shuey) and saying that he rarely played a forward pass, something I think stunts our way of playing - thru the thirds as both Lowe and Shuey are trying o get us to play that way. I truly hope Critchlow plays well for us, I’ve nothing at all against the lad.. I’d be the same for any player old or new. I also think (even tho he’s our captain) that Edwards needs a rest, he’s offering very little going forward for us this season and has never provided the proper width down the right nor crossing ability that I’d like in the way that we do down the left.

 

[Railway sleeper]

It was incredible how far forward our wing-backs were in this game.
From looking at the highlights for our goal Grant is in the six yard box and for Lincoln's first goal Edwards is our second furthest forward player trying to close down so high up the pitch.

It's a risk and reward style of football and is great when it comes off but looks naive when it goes wrong, especially when winning and no need to be so gung-ho.

3-5-2 is a style of football which comes from the footballing philosophy “ no matter how many goals you score- we’ll always score one more”.

Question is: do we have the flair attacking players ( not to mention flair defensive players) to make this style of football work in EFL1?

 

[Gary S]

Argyle TV showed highlights of Lincoln's previous game before the match on
Saturday, in which they created several good chances by attacking at pace down
the left. I assume the coaching staff will have watched the video, but maybe they
didn't consider it such a threat.

 

[Balham Green]

You cannot make a meaningful judgement of a player after one match. Its illogical.

Even more illogical when he actually had a good game.ok he lost one header. Pan lost his man as did Wilson and Scarr for the first goal.

 

[greenpilled]

3-5-2 is a style of football which comes from the footballing philosophy “ no matter how many goals you score- we’ll always score one more”.

Question is: do we have the flair attacking players ( not to mention flair defensive players) to make this style of football work in EFL1?

not sure about this. I think 3-5-2 is a very defensive formation.

Argyle (until two games ago) had one of the best defensive records in the league but had scored far fewer than the other teams towards the top of the league.

Ryan Lowe was very good at burnishing his reputation for attacking football by constantly talking it up, but the reality rarely matched the rhetoric. When we won promotion it was with Josh Grant as a converted centre back screening the back 3, and two 'wing backs' who were invariably much closer to full backs than wingers. 3-5-2 very quickly slipped into 6-2-2.

I recall in his first ever fans forum, Derek Adams being asked about formations and he said he didn't like 3-5-2 because it was too defensive, for exactly these reasons. The fans who had sat through two seasons of 3-5-2 with John Sheridan (a much less adept self publicist than Ryan Lowe) cheered with relief

 

[Nobby]

3-5-2 is a style of football which comes from the footballing philosophy “ no matter how many goals you score- we’ll always score one more”.

Question is: do we have the flair attacking players ( not to mention flair defensive players) to make this style of football work in EFL1?

Depends what you mean by “making it work”. If we win our games in hand we’re in the playoffs after 26 games. I’d suggest that means our tactics are working.

If by making it work you mean can we get promoted, that remains to be seen.

More to the point, if you took Sunderland, Wigan or Rotherham’s squad and trained them to play in a 3-5-2 would they still get promoted this year? Probably.

Our squad is good, just above average for the division and slightly overperforming I would say. Although our good first half of the season raised expectations, I think it is unrealistic to expect us to compete with the 3 clubs I mentioned above. We simply do not have the same resources, nor the same pull as those clubs who have all recently been in the Championship.

 

[Graham Clark]

On Saturday we played 3-1-4-2 with Houghton noticeably sitting deeper than Randell and Broom. as a result the latter both sat slightly more centrally adding to the exposure on both flanks. Reverting to a 3-5-2 will push both right and left midfield wider to provide greater cover for advancement of the wingbacks. I would expect that to happen in the next two away games.

For Chelsea I fully expect much more of a 5-3-2 otherwise .....

 

[Welwyn Pilgrim]

Well it’s all about opinions but I’m convinced in a few weeks time we’ll be praising Critchlow for his performances. Given that it was his first game for Argyle, playing a system he might not be use to and with players he had only just met, I thought he did well on Saturday.

 

[Balham Green]

On Saturday we played 3-1-4-2 with Houghton noticeably sitting deeper than Randell and Broom. as a result the latter both sat slightly more centrally adding to the exposure on both flanks. Reverting to a 3-5-2 will push both right and left midfield wider to provide greater cover for advancement of the wingbacks. I would expect that to happen in the next two away games.

For Chelsea I fully expect much more of a 5-3-2 otherwise .....

For Chelsea I expect 10.0.0.

 

[JannerinCardiff]

Well it’s all about opinions but I’m convinced in a few weeks time we’ll be praising Critchlow for his performances. Given that it was his first game for Argyle, playing a system he might not be use to and with players he had only just met, I thought he did well on Saturday.

I also hope to be praising Critchlows performances in a few weeks time. 👍

 

[stewthenoo]

At least we have Chelsea in the cup for the ST holders to look forward to!

Other supporters are available